


All You Can Eat

by LananiA3O



Series: Batman: Arkham Compendium [3]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Arkham (Video Games)
Genre: Barbara Gordon is a badass, C-PTSD, Gen, Lots of Food, Robin gets to beat up some nazis, Surprising Amount of Fluff, Swearing, Too much food, a bit of angst, badass Jason, brief displays of violence, brother & sister bonding, robin!jason, smart Jason, smol Jason
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-15 23:02:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11816001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LananiA3O/pseuds/LananiA3O
Summary: Bruce is out of town for a business meeting, and Batgirl is supposed to look over Gotham in his absence. When she runs into Robin during her patrol, even though Bruce specifically told Jason not to go out, Barbara decides to intervene to have a serious, but caring talk with him. It does end up mostly like that... with the addition of 5am sushi.





	All You Can Eat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cerusee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerusee/gifts).



> Yet another brain child spawned by a silly little scene in IWGA, in which Jason reminisces about how he used to have post-patrol sushi with Batgirl when he was still Robin. However, this story really grew in the telling and I ended up throwing in waaaaaayyy more Robin!Jay trivia and (head)canons then I ever imagined. Also, one scene motivated by recent events. You'll know it when you read it.
> 
> Gifted to my loyal reviewer, Cerusee. Here's your limpet story!
> 
> For more info on my stories, updates, background info and discussions and just general shenanigans, feel free to visit my blog:  
> http://lananiscorner.tumblr.com/

Some nights in Gotham were longer than others. Barbara knew that from experience. However, the worst were nights like this. Nights without Bruce. Nights without Batman.

Crooks in Gotham liked to say Batman never sleeps, never takes a night off, but Barbara knew better. To them, Batman was a terrifying creature of the night, a shadow that haunted their dreams and broke their bones, a superhuman thing that refused to go down no matter how many fists or bullets they threw at it. To Barbara, Batman was first and foremost a symbol of justice, a necessary bridge that crossed the areas police were not allowed to touch. Secondly, however, he was Bruce Wayne. Perfectly human, made of flesh and bone Bruce Wayne. And Bruce Wayne sometimes had duties that required him to be absent from Gotham.

Tonight was one of those nights. It was early November 2009, and Bruce had been invited to Singapore, to be there for the grand opening of Wayne Medical’s latest research facility. It was only going to take three nights, of course: one to get there, one to be a gracious guest and let the hosts show him their country, and one to actually inaugurate the new office. Most people would probably have taken four nights off, because flying against time zones for fifteen hours was bound to be a major headache, but Barbara had no doubt that Bruce would be back on patrol tomorrow.

Tonight though, Gotham was hers, and tonight had not been kind. She had been hopping from one robbery to the next, from break-in to break-in, from crime scene to crime scene, pretty much without a break for almost eight hours now. The sweat was running cold down the back of her costume and the chilly winds of early winter did not help. She had contemplated calling in Nightwing for support earlier, but had ultimately decided against it. She knew Dick had agreed to come to the manor earlier, in August, to help Bruce assess his new Robin, Jason, and they had somehow miraculously gotten out of that without beating the snot out of each other, but they had still parted on less than ideal terms. If Bruce were to find out that she brought him here while he was gone, there would be hell to pay. _No._ Batgirl shook her head. _I’ll have to do this one alone._

The bat signal lit up just before four in the morning and Barbara took a deep, calming breath before sliding off her far too comfortable perch on one of the clock tower gargoyles to make her way to the GCPD headquarters in the Amusement Mile. Beneath her, Gotham was busy as ever and she blamed it on the two muggings and the attempted rape that she had to break up on her way south that she arrived on the GCPD rooftop just as her father switched off the light and turned to head back inside. She cleared her throat quickly in preparation of having to drop a couple of notes, then landed softly beside the spotlight.

“Commissioner!”

“Batgirl?” The surprise was clear in her father’s voice, but Barbara paid it no mind. Surprise she could deal with. The day she would actually hear recognition in her father’s voice when talking to him as Batgirl... _that_ would be the day she’d worry. “Did you guys forget something or is there anything wrong with the files I handed you?”

 _Files?_ Barbara suppressed the urge to raise an eyebrow. _What files? Handed to whom?_

“My communications got damaged in a scuffle earlier,” Barbara said non-chalantly. “So I’m a little out of the loop. I just saw the signal and thought I’d make my way here.”

“I see.” That, of course, was Jim Gordon code for ‘not quite sure if lying or just ballsy’. Barb put on her best poker face and planted herself right where she was. She was too tired to play mind-games. Thankfully, her dad eventually relented. “No need to worry about it. Robin just got here two minutes ago. He’s taking care of it. I guess the big guy wanted to see how he’d handle talking to me all by himself.”

“Robin?”

“Yes, Robin.” Her father gave an amused smirk. “Red vest, yellow cape, R on his chest. Likes to nag his old man.”

 _Oh crap._ Barb bristled. _Jason has been out here? By himself?_ She balled her hand into a fist to resist the urge to facepalm. Bruce was not here. He had not sent Jason. As a matter of fact, if she recalled his briefing with her correctly, the one they had had the night before he had left, he had specifically told Jason to stay inside, to not leave the manor or the cave until Bruce was back, to not go on patrol. This was bad. Really bad.

“He hasn’t been gone for long,” her dad finally continued. “I’m sure can catch up to him. Don’t you guys have emergency cashes somewhere nearby?”

“Yes.” She allowed a tiny smile to grace her lips. A courtesy, really. “I’ll go get a replacement for my comms unit and catch up with them. Thank you, commissioner.”

Barbara practically fled from the rooftop. Three grapples and two-hundred meters of gliding later, she found herself a perch on a dormant chimney in the Industrial District and set her cowl communications to Robin’s channel. Her first instinct was to ask him what the hell he was thinking he was doing, going out on patrol alone like that. It was the reason why she waited another five seconds before finally opening the channel. Jason responded much better to calm concern than to pressure.

“Robin, this is Batgirl, do you read me?” The line was silent. Barbara bit her lip. “Robin, if you can hear me, please respond. I could use your help.”

“Batgirl, are you okay?”

Barbara smiled. _There_ was a sure-fire way to get Jason to respond to the comms: just pretend you needed help. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Just a little shaken. My dad just told me he handed off some important files to a kid who looked suspiciously like Robin. You know... red vest, yellow cape, R on his chest. Likes to nag his old man?”

“He’s not my old man and I don’t nag,” Jason muttered in reply and she could all but hear his scowl through the comms. It was adorable. There was the sudden, distinct sound of a grapple hook attaching to harsh, unforgiving metal, followed by a quick swish and quiet foot steps. “Please don’t tell B.”

Batgirl shook her head. “I won’t, if you tell me where you are so I can come and join you. No one should be patrolling this city all by themselves. Not Robin. Not Batman.”

“Not Batgirl?”

“No, not Batgirl either.” She was about to tell him that if she had a nickel for every time she had told Dick being all alone in Blüdhaven all the time was a horrible decision, she’d be richer than Bruce now, but she never got the chance. On the other end of the line, Jason’s voice was suddenly low and tense, underscored by a distinct growl which she had recognized as meaning that someone was about to get into some serious trouble.

“Wayne Foundation Youth Center on 45th. Meet you there. Gotta go. Trouble ahead.”

The line cut before she had any chance to reply and Barbara frowned. It was nice that Jason was taking so well to his training, but did he have to take to that part of Bruce as well?

***

It was half past four when she arrived at their designated meeting point. Two blocks down the road, Jason was just finishing tying a group of knocked out, swastika- and sieg-rune-tattooed skin-heads to the nearest lamp post. Barbara cringed at the sheer amount of fractures her cowl detected. Two of the men were still conscious, spouting every single curse word they could think of at the fourteen-year-old who had beaten the crap out of them. One look at the LGBT shelter with the homophobic slogans spray-painted onto its shutters told her that that was a very, _very_ bad idea.

“You’re going to hell, you little faggot!” One of them spat at his feet, saliva mixed with blood and a broken tooth. “You and your pedophile homo bat daddy and every single cocksucker in this dump! You’re all going to hell!”

From the other side of the post, the second conscious man – boy, really, he looked to be no older than sixteen – eyed the look of cold-blooded murder on Robin’s face in sheer terror instead. “Please... this is not what it looks like! I’m not one of them! It was just meant to be a silly joke! A prank!”

“Really...?” Jason drew the word out as if it were made of bubble gum. “Gimme a minute.”

Barbara watched from the rooftop of the deli on the other side of the street as Jason stuffed the spray can into the mouth of the moron who was still spouting insult upon insult, untied him from the post, restrained his hands behind his back, pushed his face right into the teenager’s crotch, and secured the white scarf he was wearing tightly around the teens belt. The man tried to wriggle his way to freedom, but Robin’s knots were solid. Barbara was not surprised. Bruce was teaching him, after all.

“There.” Jason took the kid’s phone and snapped a few pictures for good measure. “I’m guessing this isn’t what it looks like, either, but try telling that to your nazi friends on Facebook. They’re gonna _love_ this. I mean, it’s just a silly joke, right?”

Robin gave one last kick to the guy’s ribs, then tossed the phone into the snow next to him. “If I ever find you attacking another shelter again, your insecure masculinity is going to be the least of your problems, got it?”

The kid nodded. Robin grappled up the nearest skyscraper. Barbara followed him quickly, arriving just in time to see him sitting down on a nearby generator box with his head hung low. She approached him slowly, but she still wasn’t surprised when he called out to her six steps before she got to him.

“That’s close enough.” Jason lifted his head wearily. In his eyes, she could see the same fatigue that had been wearing her down over the last hour of her patrol. “Just gimme a minute before the lecture, ‘kay? I just had to deal with a prime dose of homophobic stupid and... just a minute, 'kay?”

“Sure.” With a quick nod, Barbara moved to the nearest edge. The first snow flakes were starting to whirl to the ground. In the distance, the bells of St. Peter’s Cathedral were ringing quarter to five over the blaring sound of police sirens. She wrapped her cape around herself and started counting.

She had reached ninety-five when Jason finally looked up at her.

“Kay. Go on. I’m ready.”

“I’m not angry with you, Robin.” Barbara said over a slight smile that hopefully shone through her voice. She was not going to make Bruce’s mistakes. She was not going to give Jason the chance to think that what she was about to say was born out of anger, especially not when he was clearly shivering in his cape, tired, exhausted, and – judging from the hunching of his shoulders – fully aware that he had done something wrong. “Do you mind if I come closer? I don’t want to shout at you over this awful wind.”

Jason nodded and that was good enough. She got up and edged forward carefully, only to stop just shy of the blessed generator box when Jason’s stomach rumbled loudly. The sudden blush on his cheeks almost made him look cute, despite the scowl on his face. Barbara grinned.

“Maybe we should finish this conversation over some food. I know this sushi place in Burnley that’s open 24/7 and makes the most delicious all-you-can-eat in all of Gotham.”

“You’re fucking kidding me, right?” Jason raised an eyebrow at her, but there was also something other than surprise in his eyes. Curiosity, mingled with wariness. “You want us to just go to some sushi place in full gear, just waltz in there and order from the AYCE menu, like we’re not two costumed vigilantes covered in blood and mud?”

Barbara shrugged. “I’ve been going there for almost eight months. They’ve never complained. And besides, Dick dragged me to ComicCon once when he was still wearing red. In full costume. You’d be surprised how little people care.”

“That’s the one thing in this world that never surprises me,” Jason answered, and the very real tinge of bitterness in his voice made her flinch. He seemed to ponder her reaction for a minute. In the end, his head sank once more. “Thanks for offering, Batgirl, but I can’t. It’s gonna mess with my diet. B is gonna be mad.”

“Diet?” Barbara swallowed hard to keep the sudden spike of anger out of her voice. “Okay, that sounds like a story.”

“A long one,” Jason objected. “B is gonna kill me, if he finds out.”

Barbara smiled deviously. “Good thing _B_ isn’t here then, is it?”

***

It was just past five when they arrived in Burnley. Mako’s Sushi stood before them in all its neon turquoise fluorescent lighted, khaki linoleum glory, and Jason looked like he was just about ready to bail. Barbara grinned at him, before pushing open the door with the smiling salmon sashimi on it. “I promise it’s much better than it looks.”

The place was empty of course. It was five o'clock on a Thursday morning. Any sane person would be in bed right now, getting some sleep before school or work. Then again, Barbara doubted that people who dressed like bats and birds to fight criminals could be called one-hundred percent sane. In fact, she was sure no one in Gotham truly was. Maybe there was something in the water.

“Batgirl!” The sushi chef smiled at her from behind the section of the sushi train that ran by the kitchen counter. “Welcome back! You brought a friend this time, yes?”

“Sure did.” She could feel Jason almost digging in his heels as she pushed him forward, but it didn’t matter. With a bright smile, Barbara dragged him over to the counter. “Chef Kazu: Robin. Robin: Chef Kazu.”

“Hi.” Jason gave a quick smile, then pulled her down by the cape to whisper in her ear. “BG, are you insane, I ain’ even got no money!”

That stumped her. That, and hearing Jason revert back to his Park Row accent of dangling participles, incorrect grammar and sharply rolled Rs. “Seriously?”

“I don’ usually patrol solo, remember?”

“I’m buying then.” Barbara shrugged, before giving the chef another bright smile. “All you can eat for two.”

The chef nodded and Barbara took Jason to their seats in her usual little corner. During rush hour, this would be the worst place in the entire shop. That far away from the kitchen counter, chances were good someone would already have snatched her orders from the sushi train by the time it got to her, but at this hour? They had the entire place for themselves. She grabbed one of the AYCE menus from atop the glass dome over the sushi train and spread it out before the two of them.

“Alright, here’s how it works: we pick whatever we want from the menu, write down the number and quantity on this—“ she showed him the little stack of white sheets placed before the train, “and then we stick it on the far side of the train. Chef grabs the order, puts the sushi on the train, and when it comes around, we take it. Go ahead and take your picks. I’ll go get us some water.”

She patted him on the shoulder shortly before making her way over to the counter. Kazu had already placed two glasses of still water on the counter for her and Barb thanked him with a quick nod. The first time she had walked into this place, the chefs had believed it to be a joke. By now, she was their most valued early morning customer. Especially on week days. She went back to their two seats, expecting to find at least one of the little lists filled out and ready to go. Jason was a big eater. She had realized that the first time he had come over to study with her and given what little Bruce and Alfred had told her about his background, she was not surprised.

Instead, the paper was empty, and Jason was staring at it as if he wanted it to disappear into thin air, with his hands balled into fists in his lap.

“Robin...” She set the glasses down softly, then sat down next to him. “Robin, talk to me, please. What’s wrong?” When he didn’t answer within a minute. Barbara sighed. “Okay. I promise I won’t tell B. Or Penny-One. Certainly not Nightwing, that blabbermouth. And I won’t laugh. Please?”

It took another solid minute until the tension slid from his shoulders, but at last, Jason took a deep breath. “You’re really not gonna tell any of them?”

“Not a word.”

“B put me on a diet.” Jason reached for his glass and downed half of it in one go. “Said I need to fix the malnutrition first, then build some muscle. No all-you can-eat for me.”

“Well,” Barbara gave him a crooked smile. “B is not here and I won’t tell. That’s not the only thing bothering you, though, is it?”

Jason shook his head. His fingers traced the numbers on the menu slowly and Barb pushed back the urge to inquire further. Clearly there were deeper issues at work here than just Bruce’s ridiculously uncompromising dietary regimen. She would give Jason all the time he needed.

In the end, it took him three-and-a-half minutes of doodling on the back of the order sheet.

“There’s just so much of it.”

“So much of what?”

“Food.” Jason looked at her as if she had just asked if water was wet. “I mean, look at this menu. It’s ridiculous. It’s got two-hundred and fifteen items on it and I don’t even know what half this stuff is! Why don’t you take me to a candy factory next time and ask me to pick one bar of chocolate?” Barbara couldn’t help it. The slight chuckle came automatically and it instantly warped Jason’s slightly frantic frown into a deep scowl of anger. “Yeah, that’s right, fucking laugh at me! This is a waste of—“

“Dear god, no!” She reached for his arm quickly, careful not to pull to tightly as he tried to get up. Caging or restraining Jason was never a good idea. Thankfully, it hadn’t been her lesson to learn, but she remembered the call from Dick, the sheer anger and disgust at Bruce in his voice, the heartbroken look on his pale face when they had met for coffee the next day. This was a matter that required utmost finesse. “I probably didn’t make this clear enough: you don’t have to limit yourself to one order sheet. It’s all you can eat. You can order as much as you want. And I come here all the time, so I see no reason why you shouldn’t.”

“B?”

Barb wanted to sigh. Always Bruce. It was easy holding Bruce up as the argument against any sort of rule-breaking, because there was a frightening truth to it. Bruce could be legitimately scary. Bruce _would not_ approve of this. Bruce would object. Bruce would declare this to be a one time thing only. He’d do it with the best intentions, of course, namely keeping Jason healthy, but the road to hell was paved with good intentions, too.

“B is not here. And even if he ever finds out, even if he complains, he’s welcome to take it up with me. Don’t think I haven’t called him out on anything before. He knows he’s biting down on granite if he tries to argue with me.”

Jason seemed to mull that over in his head for a while. His lip twitched as he suppressed the urge to bite down on it. Another thing Bruce had taught him. Another thing to help keep a straight face. Very useful on patrol and on camera. Disastrous in real life. “It’s still a lot of food.”

“I know.” She let the steel that she had given to her voice when talking about Bruce melt and bleed out. She was no longer talking to Robin. She was talking to Jason. Fourteen-year-old, fresh off Park Row’s streets Jason. “Do you want to know a secret? Most people who come to these kind of restaurants, they don’t even try everything that’s on the menu. They pick their favorites, or they already have them, and then they just order the same thing over and over again. They don’t appreciate how lucky they are to have the chance to have so much choice, anytime they want, for just twenty-five bucks, but I think you do. And that’s a good thing, even if it hurts right now. It really is.”

“You’re just saying this to make me feel better.”

“I’m saying it in the hopes that you will sit down and actually enjoy some of the breaks life has cut you, for a change, because I think you deserve it.”

It took Jason another minute to give in and finally sit down again, but eventually he did. Barbara sighed in relief as he picked up the menu once more.

“So how are we going to do this?”

Barb frowned at the menu. There really were two-hundred and fifteen choices, and truth was, she was one of those people who always picked their favorites and ignored the rest. Perhaps it was time to change that.

“How about this? We pick two of the first one from each category and keep a list of the ones we really like. Next time we come here, we pick the second one from each, after that the third and the forth and if we keep this up every month or so, we’ll hopefully be through this menu before you graduate from high school.”

Despite shaking his head, Jason thankfully agreed to the plan, and Barbara felt a weight the size of Mount Everest slide off her shoulders. She let him write the order sheets, pitching in only on rare occasions to let him know that, yes, it was perfectly fine if they ordered something she wasn’t particularly thrilled about, yes, she would still be paying for all this, no it would not bankrupt her, no, she would not tell Bruce, and, no, the chef really won’t mind getting a big order like that all of a sudden at ‘ass o’clock in the morning’.

“I only wish they actually listed all the ingredients,” Barbara muttered as they were halfway through the menu. “I mean... how should we know what’s in a starlight roll?”

Jason scoffed at that as he reached for the fourth order sheet and jotted down the grilled goods. “Honestly, once you’ve had a ‘mercy bowl’ from the shelter down on Abbey Street, you just stop asking. Sometimes, it’s better not to know.”

Barbara did not want to argue with that. Lord in heaven knew what toxic crap Jason had forced down during his days of near starvation on the streets of Gotham. The less said about it, the better. She didn’t want him to go back to that place of mind.

The miso soup and seaweed salad arrived first and Barbara smiled at the way the tension seemed to drain from Jason’s limbs as he sipped carefully on the hot soup. She had expected him to complain about the consistency of the salad, as most people did upon their first time trying it, but instead Jason had merely shrugged it off with a muttered “I’ve had worse”, prompting her to abandon that thought. The salmon sushi and sashimi were sublime, and while Barbara herself had yet to understand the appeal of sushi pizza – especially since it had practically nothing to do with proper pizza – she was happy enough to watch Jason dig in with gusto.

The second order took a little longer to arrive, but for once, Barbara did not mind. It gave her a chance to find out what exactly had prompted Jason to go on patrol despite Bruce’s orders – namely the fact that he had solved three of Bruce’s pending cases while doing research in the Batcave – and how come Alfred had not called him home yet – a nasty cold, with an even nastier cough that had prompted Jason to spike Alfred’s tea so the poor man would finally get some rest. Barbara once more swallowed her displeasure at Jason picking up Bruce’s worst habits, together with the freshly arrived California handroll, before helping Jason eradicate a whopping six pieces of tempura shrimp and cucumber roll, as well as another six pieces of a chicken teriyaki roll.

By the time Jason sent the third sheet down the sushi train, part of her was starting to regret her choices. Clearly she had underestimated the filling capabilities of sushi rice, while overestimating her own hunger. When the two pieces each of egg roll, shrimp tempura, bulgogi beef teriyaki and crystal shrimp dumplings arrived in front of them, all she could do was wince.

“You know... I think I’m gonna skip this round.”

“Are you insane?” Jason stared at her as if she had just suggested they shave a cat and stick it in a Christmas tree. “BG, you paid for this!”

“Yeah, and my stomach’s going to make me pay again if I eat another bite.”

He pointed at her egg roll. “So... you’re not going to eat this?”

That drew a quick giggle from her. Barbara shook her head in denial. “Jesus, Christ, Robin...” _This precious child..._ “Go ahead and knock yourself out. Don’t blame me if you throw up later.”

He didn’t need to be told twice. The third order disappeared as quickly as it had come, followed by the final sheet, with the grilled kitchen goods and the dessert on it. General Tao’s chicken didn’t last very long. Neither did the chicken fried rice. The popcorn chicken off the deep fried list that Jason had smuggled in there survived a little longer, if only because it made her heart bleed with sympathy-induced cultural indignation.

“We’re in a sushi restaurant and you’re ordering popcorn chicken?”

Jason shrugged. “It was on the menu. And I like popcorn chicken.”

“Yeah... but every other dish on the menu is at least Asian, if not Japanese. That” she pointed her chopsticks at the chili-dipped balls of deep-fried chicken on his plate “has no business being on this menu.”

Jason swallowed, narrowed his eyes at her and did his best impression of Bruce in full on intimidation face. It might even have worked, had he not still been a good foot too small and several pounds to light for his age, with a cracking voice and not a single hair on his face.

“Are you discriminating against the poultry, BG? That chicken has done absolutely nothing to you. It has as much right to be on this menu as anything else.”

This time amusement didn’t rise up slowly inside her. This time it erupted in a fountain of laughter, bending her over until her sides hurt and her eyes were starting to get wet. Barb shook her head as the laughter finally subsided.

“Jesus Christ... alright, I surrender. You go ahead and support the popcorn chicken. You can have my udon soup and my grilled mussel, too.”

She handed off her dishes, only for Jason to push a teeny tiny pocket book into her hand.

“Don’t want you to sit here bored to death while I’m eating,” Jason muttered quickly, before returning to the poor poultry.

Barbara raised an eyebrow as she started leafing through the old, battered pages of the book. Holding it now, she could see how it would fit perfectly into Robin’s hand. And his utility belt. On the front cover, the words “A Thousand Questions To Mother Nature” smiled at her in golden letters.

“Stake-out reading material?”

Jason nodded over a mouthful of ckicken udon, swallowed, and pointed his chopsticks at the book. “Alf—Penny-One gave it to me after my first night out with B. Said I could use something to keep me occupied if I ever have a slow night. I’ve got a pristine edition at home, too, but, well... for patrol...”

“It would be a waste,” Barbara agreed. As a matter of fact, she was surprised the book still had all its pages and only mild water damage. She opened a page at random and started reading. “What is lightning and how does it work?”

“Mhm...” Robin downed the rest of his noodle soup in a hurry. “Did you know that there’s a kind of lightning called ‘ball lightning’ that occurs near the ground and moves across the landscape for several seconds like some kind of crazy thunderstorm fairy?!”

“Seriously?” Of course she did. She had read all about it... somewhere. In some book similar to the one she was holding, but there was no harm in hiding that fact. Not when Jason was beaming at her with an honest to god, sincere smile for a change, as if he had just made the greatest discovery in the world. “That sounds amazing! I’d love to see that in real life.”

“It’s supposed to be super-rare,” Jason said as he reached for his grilled mussel. “As a matter of fact, lots of scientist didn’t even—“ He stopped halfway through the bite. Barb grinned as she watched him swallow, then look at the empty shell like it was made of gold. Very tasty, edible gold. “Oh my god, BG, these are awesome!”

“And supposedly super-easy and relatively cheap to make. If you ask him, I’m sure he’ll make some for you every now and then.” ‘Him’ being Alfred of course, but Barbara wasn’t fooled by the cozy atmosphere around them and neither was Jason. They were still in public. Field names were paramount.

They finished their meal with an order of deep fried golden banana, another dish to be put onto the please-make-this-again-some-day-Alfie list, if Jason’s reaction was anything to go by. Barbara looked on slightly amused while skimming through the little book. Some of the questions seemed too simple for someone of Jason’s age, almost childlike, but then again, he had had to drop out of school in third grade, and despite everything that Gotham had already put him through, it was moments like these, when he was grinning over a particularly tasty desert or narrating enthusiastically about the latest subject of his tutoring sessions that Barbara was reminded that some part of Jason was still a child at heart, full of hope and an unbridled curiosity for this world.

She was starting to see why Bruce had benefited so much from taking in his boys. First Dick. Now Jason. She was starting to understand why Batman needed a Robin.


End file.
